This week I suggest you read the fourth nominee alphabetically in the Best Paperback Original category, Josh Stallings's YOUNG AMERICANS.

Josh Stallings's novel was published on October 30, 2015. He calls YOUNG AMERICANS a "Glam Rock Disco Heist Novel." (In case you don't get the cultural reference of the title, David Bowie released an album of the same name in 1975, and "Young Americans" was a single of the same name.) Set in San Francisco on New Year's Eve 1976, this is a rollicking crime fiction novel which is so accurate and authentic to the time, place and characters that the reader will come away with the soundtrack firmly implanted in their head and with some glitter on their face. This all about sex, drugs, cash, guns,fast cars, and being young and wild in the 1970's. Stallings was nominated for an Anthony in 2014 for his memoir All The Wild Children: A noir memoir.

This week I suggest you read the third nominee alphabetically in the Best Paperback Original category, Lori Rader-Day's LITTLE PRETTY THINGS.

Lori Rader-Day's crime thriller/murder mystery LITTLE PRETTY THINGS was published by Seventh Street Books on July 15, 2015. It is an incredible psychological thriller and suspense tale with a small town setting, and the plot revolves around a ten-year high school reunion. The past does not remain in the past. Rader-Day is a marvelous writer who alternately gives the reader chills and genuine laughs. The novel won the Mary Higgins Clark Award in April 2015 when the Mystery Writers of America presented the Edgar Awards. Rader-Day's debut novel The Black Hour won Best First Novel at the 2015 Anthony Awards (Bouchercon 2015), 2015 Lovey Award (Love Is Murder Conference), and 2015 Silver Falchion Award (Killer Nashville).

You can order a copy of LITTLE PRETTY THINGS here with these links for IndieBound, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or purchase it at your local independent bookstore.

The Detective Sean Duffy novels are set in Belfast in the 1980's during "The Troubles." Sean McDuffy is a Catholic police detective in a predominantly Protestant area. McKinty's Duffy novels are renowned for being both dark and witty. McKinty has a gift for using the police procedural to examine the larger historical and societal issues at play. GUN STREET GIRL is the fourth in the series. The fifth RAIN DOGS is on the longlist for the 2016 Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Novel Of The Year and on the longlist for the CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger Award 2016.

You can order a copy of GUN STREET GIRL here with these links for IndieBound, Amazon, Barnes & Noble or purchase it at your local independent bookstore.

Coincidentally, there are fifteen (15) novels by 2016 Anthony Awards Nominees in three of the categories: Best Novel, Best First Novel, and Best Paperback Original. All categories are equally important, but for our purposes, why don't we try reading one of these crime novels each week?This week I suggest you start with the first nominee alphabetically in the Best Paperback Original category, Lou Berney's THE LONG AGO AND FARAWAY GONE.